Major Donor Fundraising: This Mistake Can Kill Your Major Donor fundraising

Major Donor Fundraising

All too often I hear of organizations taking their major donors out of their direct mail stream.  They don’t want to overwhelm their major donors with appeal letters and newsletters.

I applaud their desire to protect their major donors from too many communications, but I believe there needs to be a balance.

When you pull your major donors from your direct communications, your donors will give less because they don’t feel like they have good connection with your organization.  I strongly recommend that you send your newsletter to your major donors.

If your donors are going to write you another large donation, they need to be Reported to.  (In other words, they need to be told what their previous gift accomplished.)  And the primary purpose of your newsletter is to do just that; Report back to your donors what was accomplished because they gave a gift.

Feel free to upgrade the way the newsletter is delivered to your majors.  Give it a personal touch by hand-addressing the envelope.  One of our clients has great success by putting their newsletter in a large envelope (so they don’t have to fold it), hand-addressing the envelope, and sending it to their majors.

Whatever you do, make sure your major donors are hearing from you regularly.  If you don’t have the manpower to be personally in touch with them often, you should absolutely be including them in your mailings – especially your newsletter!

Jim Shapiro

Jim Shapiro is the fundraising coach you’ve always wanted, the proven Sherpa who can help you get to the top of the mountain. Jim has 30 years’ experience raising money, including serving as the VP of Development for a global $100m nonprofit. He co-founded The Better Fundraising Co. to help small-to-medium nonprofits raise more money.

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